On the topic of herbal/plant spoilage, I would like to point out that when some very ancient Egyptian tombs were opened, jars of wheat and corn were found that were still viable after 3500 years. In other words, if you planted then seed, it would still grow. They were still "alive."

Therefore, it seems if you protect a plant artifact from air and moisture its shelf-life may be well-nigh infinite. The key point is to keep it dry and sealed as air-tight as possible.

I had a reading with Conjureman Ali and I was given the green light for reconciliation work, my issue is- my target (my ex) is extremely angry with me and doing his best to put me out of his life forever. I will be making a doll baby out of his boxers and wanted to what herbs, grasses etc would work best?

I am looking to instill love while also healing the wound I cause and allowing for forgiveness, I want to fill the doll baby with these, as well as look for oils to anoint skull candles.

I love love love the LM reconcilation spell kit and all its products. The oil and herbs smell amazing. It comes with everything you need to get it started. You basically do the spell kit with the candles, with left over material make a mojo and send them a dressed letter. Of course they probably wont respond right away and thats ok, the trick was getting the letter dressed with powders and herbs on them. A rec honey jar is a great additive to make him more sweet. I would have an AIRR worker set rec candles for you along with a healing candle and you burn your honey jar rec candles mon-wed-fr. Use pslams 42 to reconcile with a person.

I like to dress my candles in oils that tell the story, cat has a phrase for this but I cant remember what she calls it. Like i would dress the candle with come to me oil, rec oil and a love oil that fits as it tells the story. I would double dress it as well by sprinkling lm powders on the candle or rolling it in the powder. LM sells the 9 herbs plus 9 love oils mix that sounds like a great doll filler to me.

This is big local news here. It might be a good idea to purchase your ginseng from Lucky Mojo. If you must harvest your own, make sure you are on private property and have the permission of the property owner!

I don't know that there is a most common product type in use. With Hoodoo people use what they need. If they are doing work to get more money they would get their hands on some Money Drawing (http://www.luckymojo.com/moneydrawing.html) products. If they wanted to do blessing work they would get Blessing (http://www.luckymojo.com/blessing.html) products or maybe 7-11 Holy Type oil. The list goes on. I know that Van Van (http://www.luckymojo.com/vanvan.html) is a very popular product and people use it to empower themselves and turn their luck from bad to good. I would suggest picking an area of your life you would like to work on and then looking into the products that can assist you in that area. Start working with those and you will get an idea of how this all works. Hope this is helpful

I am really new to Hoodoo and am just now purchasing my supplies, what I need to know is what is the best way to store my roots, and other ingredients. In glass bottles or? any help on this will be greatly appreciated

If you get a chance, please introduce yourself 9if you wish) on the introduction thread.

Also, please be careful of where you post. I have moved and merged this post to the appropriate subforum. When you have a question, just go to the search box (the white box in the dark green area of the upper right hand side) and just search the words. In this case: Herbs.

Take a look at the pages here (3 pages) There are ideas for storage. Anything airtight and out of heat and direct sunlight is good for storage.

Wishing you the best

PROUD member of AIRRFind me on the AIRR websitehttp://readersandrootworkers.org

I have read that sesame is good luck, road opener ala "open sesame", you should keep a jar half full of sesame seeds. However, I found black sesame seeds at the store. I have looked all over: websites, wicca blogs, rootwork forums, books, and no one seems to mention black sesame seed. My question is are they positive energy like there blond sisters, or negative energy like black push pins, black candles, black salt, black ask, black cats hair, something use to pull negativity? The only reference I have found was someone selling some in what look like tiny witch bottle, there were no instructions to say you keep in your house, or bury in your nasty neighbors yard. Please if anyone knows can you post back?

In all honesty, I don't know if I would use them without Miss cat saying that it would be alright.

What bothers me is that they appear to have different properties. There's identical genus, species. BUT the black ones have an added letter to their names. I also know that there's a higher content of certain elements and they emit a different aroma.

Therefore, those differences make me uncomfortable.

I'm sorry that I can't give you a more direct answer.

Wishing you the best

PROUD member of AIRRFind me on the AIRR websitehttp://readersandrootworkers.org

Hi, I am getting ready to place an order for herbs however, have a question. In the book Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic, I want to try a controlling and a faithful spell, but it states to 'control a spouse' or 'make spouse faithful'. Are they just for married people or can I use on boyfriend?

Pg. 184 A silver dime hand to get a job or to gamble - After the 19th day, what am I to do with the packet?

Sorry, I'm just a little confused as to where I should post this....in the book section or herb section So, I reposted here....

I treat my working herbs like cooking herbs " Give your herbs and spices an annual check-up: recommend that once a year you open each of your containers of cooking spices and herbs. Check for a fresh appearance (even in the softer colored herbs and spices there is an unmistakable freshness in the color when the item is new). Bring the container up to your nose; the aroma should rise up to greet you. If you have to “get to the container” to detect the aroma of a ground spice it’s a sign that the spice is past its prime. Note, however, that many whole spices (peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, etc.) have such a protective cell structure that they don’t reveal their full fragrance until broken or crushed." If you working with fresh herbs, when they go bad you kinda know. I also store different energy herbs in diffent areas, hexing and uncross don't live in same spice drawer, but money and love since most of them cross over are happy campers. Never take your gator claw over a river to the water, don't grind john the C in coffee grinder, unless you want tummy trouble.

There is site a LM devoted to lodestones http://www.luckymojo.com/lodestone.html I personally keep them in there plastic bag with iron sand, due the fact sand gets everywhere, unless cleaning, or using, and I never recycle they get proper burial or tossed into the river. Container wise I wish I could have glass containers with proper labels ala Wicca Martha Steward, but that's costly, and depending on use not good idea. I use mason jars, old pasta sauce jar, pickle jars, and beer bottles for witch bottles. Supermarket herbs: basil, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, cyanne, pepper, ect I normally keep in container came in. I use a lot of hyssop, rue, mint, bay, angelica, Irish moss, five finger, so kept in plastic bags. Poke, Oak Moss, Blackberry leaf, kept in paper bags, Poke cause its toxic, Oak moss due to size, need to keep dry, and in one piece, Blackberry because they got thorns. John the Conquer kept in purple bag in the sock draw, it like it there. Grains of Paradise i keep out of the kitchen so it not used a ordinary pepper, it hangs out with fenugreek, sassafras, cloves, and whole nutmeg in jars. All my oils in glass jars because plastic makes odd odor, and does not heat well. Graveyard dirt I get the day I use it, I do not store it in the house, because either the house protection will zap it or i just brought evil home, its normally in ziplock as it was easier to steal that way. Pine needle i get fresh, cause I am in the south.

Hi I have a question, can powder be substituted for hard to find herbs.for example, if I cannot obtain a particular herb like lovage or John the conqueror or any herb,but the powder is available, can it be substituted for dressing candles and doing candle spells?

For dressing candles or using as incense, the powder can be used. If you're making a mojo hand, then you probably want the herb whole or sifted and cut. The issue with many powders is that they're easily adulterated so do make sure you're actually getting the right herb. For most herbs used in conjure however (and herbs like lovage and John the Conqueror specifically), you can get them via Lucky Mojo where they're quite inexpensive. You'll find the herbs in their on-line store here: http://www.luckymojo.com/mojocatherbs.html

Not sure where to post/ask are there any hoodoo uses for Apricot or Apricot Blossom? I checked the "Hoo Doo Herb and Root Magic" book and didn't see anything also googled/binged only found association with love, I ask other types of practitioners but still nothing. The reason I ask is I've been having an interesting experience with a candle I won years ago at a Chinese auction and it's very aromatic fills my entire house almost 2000sq. feet with its scent and it's Apricot Blossom scent, every time I burn it even for short periods my father who has COPD among other issues ends up having a better day health wise... So I'm just wondering if there is anything Apricot Blossom is used for and is there more I can do with it?

azurkgny wrote:The reason I ask is I've been having an interesting experience with a candle I won years ago at a Chinese auction and it's very aromatic fills my entire house almost 2000sq. feet with its scent and it's Apricot Blossom scent, every time I burn it even for short periods my father who has COPD among other issues ends up having a better day health wise...

I'm not a chemist or experienced candlemaker, or an expert on COPD. But I wonder if there might be something in the formula of the apricot scent that has a positive medical/physical effect on your father's health? You'd have to ask a chemist and a doctor, I think.

I don't know of any associations in hoodoo traditions for apricot blossom or any part of the apricot tree. If there are any spiritual reasons for the candle's good effects on your father, a divination might uncover them.

Off the top of my head, though I'd be inclined to ask if there are any deceased members of your family who loved apricots or their scent, and were on good terms with your father while they lived.

Thanks so much Miss Michaele I am looking into more reasoning and to figure it out not just for my father but if there is something about it that may help other as well, I'll have to ask my father who may have liked apricot on his side. I know my maternal grandmother liked apricot, but she was not on good terms with my father.

I have heard of people using herbs from the supermarket for their work. I personally just order mine from Lucky Mojo because I trust their products to be the best quality.

How long something is good for depends. Oils stored in a dark, cool and dry place can last for a long time. Powders are the same way. For individual herbs it depends on how well they were dried and what the herb is really.

I do buy herbs from the grocery store and a number of sources. I don't feel that they're "dead" per se, but I do like the idea of purchasing from Lucky Mojo just for vibrational and quality reasons. Some things I just can't find anywhere else, like Deer's Tongue, and LM's prices are very very reasonable. If you compare the cost of star anise or poppy seeds in your baking aisle to that of LM's it just make sense. I do just feel too that there's something to buying products from a store like LM, which specializes in rootwork. I feel like it raises the energies. But...no, I don't think the herbs are dead. I think the spirits that exist in them are always in them, waiting to help and fulfill their potential. The ones in the grocery store just usually go unfulfilled and wind up in poppy seed muffins.

Thank you for your quick replies, Natstein and luckycat13. Thank you for the advice as well. I will from now on buy them from LM whenever I have the chance or it's practical (sometimes it's quicker to just go down to the store and buy some than ordering it in the mail).

hello; so happy to find your forum and store; may i ask if your herbs are charged/blessed or i should do it when received? if its my job then may i ask the best way to do so? i heard of herbs Divas to ask upon to bless/charge each herb? can i find more info on them on your forum? thanks a lot;

thanks so much, Miss Aida, for your help ! done; love your name ; i think rainbow is the most fascinating miracle of the nature; i wish SoCal has rains to enjoy rainbows; used to enjoy them back in Europe quite often;

Calamus root whole, High John The Conqueror root, Lucky Hand root, Queen Elizabeth root when used in a mojo bag and if it is time to refresh the bag. Do we replace the these roots or can we use back the same root?